Friday, January 6, 2017

January Monthly Goals 2017

In the past few years, I've enjoyed participating in a Monthly Goals series with several other bloggers. Each month bloggers share their goals and update on the progress they've made. By posting my goals here, for all of you to see, it's made me feel much more accountable to meeting the goals.

After a few months off from goal making I've decided to refresh the practice for the New Year. This year I've decided to do year long goals, with monthly check-ins.

Year Long Goals

Balance -
This is not a new concept for me, or for many moms in fact, but this year I want to find more balance. I feel like I spend most of my time off balance - and in too many areas: work, home, parenting, time for myself, creative energies. I really want to find strategies, routines, experiences which bring me and our household a greater sense of balance.

Purpose -
This year I want to feel that both my time and the things in my life have purpose. In terms of activities and the time I spend on projects, when time feels limited, it's even more important to make sure that that time is used purposefully. I also want to spend time remembering why I do things, and what the purpose behind these choices is.

Health-
Like many people, the New Year seems to bring a a time to reflect on health. This year I want to see my health, both physical and mental, become something I focus on regularly. The time commitments of being both a teacher and a mommy can take away from exercise and mental breaks. This year I want to commit to creating that time for myself.

Organization-
I am always striving for better organization. A small house, too much stuff, a busy routine . . . I could go on — they are all always on the verge of becoming even more disorganized. I always joke with people that I may look organized, but they shouldn't look in my car, my desk, my hutch, or my closets. And usually just when I've gotten one space organized, it becomes apparent another space is in desperate need of organizing. Or, when one system has been working pretty well, it's not too much longer until another one is needed.

January Goals

Knowing that each of the goals above is big one, each month I hope to find a manageable way to work on addressing them. Hopefully, by the end of 2017 I'll have a bank of strategies, techniques and processes that have made each one seem a little more doable.

So for January, this is how I've decided to start tackling these goals.

Balance-
This month I'm focusing more on my parenting balance. Coming out of the busy holiday season I feel like there was a lot of time where I've been having to focus on things other than the kids. A lot of moments where I had to say, "not right now." So in January I truly just want to play more. Play legos, play in the snow, play board games, just play more.

In addition to that, lately it feels like the dynamics are shifting in our household and that both boys are needing some more purposeful one-on-one attention. I loved this resolution idea that was shared by The Parent Toolkit and we've decided to adapt it to fit our family routine. The premise of the idea is that each kiddo gets at least 10 minutes a day of focused one-on-one time. While that may not be practical for a busy workday with each parent, we are trying to make sure that each kiddo gets 10 minutes a day one-on-one with at least one parent. We managed to do it for four of the first six days this week, so we made progress while there is still room for improvement.

Purpose-
In January my goal is to look at all of my "extracurricular" activities beyond my job and home, and to write out why I do these activities or committees.

Health -
After the indulging month of the holidays it's time to get back onto a better eating track and to get back into exercise. I'm looking forward to finding some new exercise routines. My goal is to get to cardio at least three times a week and to do some type of strengthening/toning exercise daily. (Over the summer I fell in love with planks as a quick, toning and mental exercise.)

Organization-
It's the time of year where I love to work on decluttering our home. Each year January feels like such a great time to really evaluate what can be tucked away into storage or given away completely.

I'm looking forward to seeing the progress I can make in each of my four key areas this month. Don't forget to check out some of the other blogger's and their goals listed below.